Scott Davidoff, Carson Bloomberg, Ian Anthony R. Li, Jennifer Mankoff, and Susan R. Fussell. 2005. The book as user interface: lowering the entry cost to email for elders. In CHI '05 extended abstracts on Human factors in computing systems (CHI EA '05). ACM, New York, NY, USA, 1331-1334. | Bibtex | Endnote

Substantial stumbling blocks confront computer-illiterate elders. We introduce a novel user interface technology to lower these start up costs: the book as user interface, or BUI. Book pages contain both step-by-step instructions and tangible controls, turning a complex interaction into a walk-up-and-use scenario. The system expands support past the technical artifact to a go-to relationship. ElderMail users designate an internet-savvy trusted friend or relative to help with complex tasks. In this paper, we conduct a preliminary evaluation of a BUI-based email system, and report our findings. While research has augmented paper artifacts to provide alternate access into the digital world, we find that elders use the BUI as a way to circumvent the digital world.

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